The PromoCell 3D Tumorsphere Medium XF is a culture system developed for the standardized serial culture of cancer cell lines as tumorspheres/mammospheres. The formulation supports sustained cell proliferation allowing for serial passage of the 3D culture. Its serum-free and xeno-free formulation provides a culture environment devoid of all stimuli originating from non-defined materials.

Components:

The PromoCell 3D Tumorsphere Medium XF consists of a bottle of Basal Medium and one vial of SupplementMix. Adding the SupplementMix to the Basal Medium results in the complete medium.

During our quality control we do not determine the presence or maintenance of respective stem cell markers in the tumorspheres. We use a functional approach instead, by culturing the tumorspheres over serial passages in C-28070. Tumorsphere formation requires the biological features of Anoikis resistance and self-renewal and therefore indicates the presence of cancer stem cells (CSC)/cancer initiating cells (CIC) in the spheres. 3D tumorsphere culture thus allows scientists to study the biology of CSCs without any background knowledge on CSC markers.

Many scientists working in oncology focus on cancer stem cells (CSCs). Targeting these cells specifically could improve cancer therapy significantly. Because CSCs rely heavily on their environment, three-dimensional cultivation offers the unique opportunity to better understand this interaction. We talked to two scientists working in this field of cancer research.
In the human body,…